Category: Japan

In 1908the French banker and philanthropist Albert Kahn launched one of the most ambitious projects in the history of photography. A pacifist, internationalist and utopian idealist, Kahn decided to use his private fortune to improve understanding between the nations of the world. To this end, he created what he called his Archive of the Planet. For the next two decades, he dispatched professional photographers to document the everyday lives of people in more than 50 countries all around the world. Kahn's wealth enabled him to supply his photographers with the most advanced camera technology available ...
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A departure from other documentaries that observe history as the actions of great men People's Century considers the Century from the view of common people. Most persons interviewed were ordinary men and women who closely witnessed various events and they give personal accounts how developments in the Twentieth Century affected their lives. The opening credits depict various images from the century and a very short introduction. Episode 1 Age of Hope 1900 - At the beginning of the twentieth century the world was stable and certain, but unequal. The Paris Exhibition of 1900 symbolises the optimism of a peaceful age when affluence is rising and people have faith in new technologies like electricity. The United States becomes the most powerful country in the world, destination for many immigrants from Europe. Compulsory education in many countries had led to a literate population exposed to new ideas, leisure and consumerism through newspapers ...
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How did an Indian Buddhist shrine influence a Japanese pagoda? How are Italian pigs and cowry shells related to porcelain? These intriguing questions are investigated in Artifactsa series that explores the origins and hidden connections among the art and artifacts of the great cultures and belief systems across Asia to understand the impact of calligraphy, porcelain, architecture, metallurgy, wood block printing and silk on Asian history and on the history of the world in general. Episode 4 Soul of the Samurai - Why has the samurai sword always been such a powerful symbol of Japanese culture? In the year 1900, Dr. Nitobe wrote a book in English called Bushido he wrote, just as the code of the samurai is the soul of Japan, the sword is the soul of the samurai ...
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How did an Indian Buddhist shrine influence a Japanese pagoda? How are Italian pigs and cowry shells related to porcelain? These intriguing questions are investigated in Artifactsa series that explores the origins and hidden connections among the art and artifacts of the great cultures and belief systems across Asia to understand the impact of calligraphy, porcelain, architecture, metallurgy, wood block printing and silk on Asian history and on the history of the world in general. Episode 5 Prints of the Floating World - Today's Japan. Everywhere you look, amazing images fight for your attention. This is the graphic art for which Japan is justly famous. It has it's roots in the age of the woodblock print, or Ukiyo - e an art form whose impact was as revolutionary in Japan as Gutenberg's printed books were in the west ...
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The ultimate success or failure of many of the battles of World War II boiled down to men and machines locked in a fight to the death. Special regimentssquadrons and naval services, together with clandestine forces and formations, gave the vast, overall fighting forces of World War II an extra edge in the most pivotal battles. Gladiators of World War II examines the establishment and background of the greatest fighting forces of the Second World War. Each program examines a different unit, dissecting its command structure, military objectives, battle formations and its success or failure in applying its tactics and strategy to each of the major theatres in which it fought. Episode Kamikaze - In autumn 1944, with ultimate defeat beginning to stare them in the face, the Japanese introduced a new and terrible weapon suicide attack aircraft. The young pilots who volunteered for Kamikaze missions knew that they were ...
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Each turning point in history has behind it a story and a set of principal characters whose dilemmas and conflicts form its dramatic coreand whose unique personalities influenced the outcome of events. History's Turning Points provides a fascinating and intriguing new perspective on the significant moments that have changed the world. The Atomic Bomb - 1945 A.D. Without doubt, the Second World War was the most momentous event in U.S. history. Few single instants have marked so great and historic watershed as 915 a.m., August 6, 1945. Traditional war as an instrument of international policy ended completely, and future relations between nations changed drastically afterward ...
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Japan blossomed into its Renaissance at approximately the same time as Europe. Unlike the Westit flourished not through conquest and exploration, but by fierce and defiant isolation. And the man at the heart of this empire was Tokugawa Ieyasu, a warlord who ruled with absolute control. This period is explored through myriad voices the Shogun, the Samurai, the Geisha, the poet, the peasant and the Westerner who glimpsed into this secret world. Episode 3 The Return of the Barbarians - Isolated from the West, 18th century Edo flourishes culturally and economically, becoming one of the liveliest cities in the world. But foreign forces are coming ...
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The series features various subjects related to science and technology. Some of the views expressed might be considered fringe or pseudo-science. Episode 3 Angry Earth - In the last centurymore than 1 million people died in earthquakes. Over the next century, it is feared that number could increase ten-fold. Why? Because Earthquakes don't kill people. Buildings do. And urban populations are increasing so fast that we now have mega-cities. We discover the seismic vulnerability of some of the world's mega cities and the threat posed to millions of people all over the world ...
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A departure from other documentaries that observe history as the actions of great men People's Century considers the Century from the view of common people. Most persons interviewed were ordinary men and women who closely witnessed various events and they give personal accounts how developments in the Twentieth Century affected their lives. The opening credits depict various images from the century and a very short introduction. Episode 10 Total War 1939 - The Second World War enmeshes civilians to the horrors of war on an unprecedented scale. Germany and Japan, in seeking living space, kill and enslave entire populations in the Soviet Union and Asia respectively. Initially considered barbarous, people begin to accept as fair game the aerial bombing of civilian populations, and escalating calls for retaliation bring destruction to cities including Plymouth, Hamburg and Tokyo. Civilians are also in the front line in the Siege of Leningrad, but despite ...
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A departure from other documentaries that observe history as the actions of great men People's Century considers the Century from the view of common people. Most persons interviewed were ordinary men and women who closely witnessed various events and they give personal accounts how developments in the Twentieth Century affected their lives. The opening credits depict various images from the century and a very short introduction. Episode 14 Fallout 1945 - Nuclear weapons make the world more dangerous than ever before. The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 by atom bombs is hailed for ending the Second World War, but the long term effects of radiation are discovered years later. To ensure parity with the US, Stalin puts his scientists to work and four years later the Soviet Union explodes its first nuclear bomb, starting an arms race between the superpowers in which peace is maintained through the doctrine ...
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A departure from other documentaries that observe history as the actions of great menPeople's Century considers the Century from the view of common people. Most persons interviewed were ordinary men and women who closely witnessed various events and they give personal accounts how developments in the Twentieth Century affected their lives. The opening credits depict various images from the century and a very short introduction. Episode 19 Asia Rising 1951 - Through thrift, hard work and discipline, Japan and later South Korea enjoy economic miracles that bring growth, prosperity and confidence to their once war ravaged and impoverished people. In Japan the Korean War kickstarts manufacturing, and growth is sustained through export orientated industries using Western technologies and production methods, and assisted by a dedicated, highly educated labour force strongly committed to improving their country. In the 1960s President Park Chung Hee largely followed Japan's economic policies in steering South ...
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Controversial historian Professor Niall Ferguson argues that in the last century there were not in fact two World Wars and a Cold Warbut a single Hundred Years' War. It was not nationalism that powered the conflicts of the century, but empires. It was not ideologies of class or the advent of socialism driving the century, but race. Ultimately, ethnic conflict underpinned 20th century violence. Finally, it was not the west that triumphed as the century progressed, in fact, power slowly and steadily migrated towards the new empires of the East. Episode 3 Killing Space - How the rise of the Axis powers led to a fundamental redrawing of the world map. He pinpoints 1942 as a pivotal year, and considers how the 20th century might have unfolded had World War Two ended differently, with totalitarian regimes dividing the globe between them ...
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World War II In HD Colour is a 13 episode television documentary series recounting the major events of World War II narrated by Robert Powell. The series combines both original and colourised footage. With the very latest satellite delivered terrain mapping and state of the art graphics this story can now be told with access to information which was not previously available to other older series. Conventional wisdom has recently changed as more and more secrets have been revealed particularly in the last five to ten years as documentsfiles and photographs have been released. Code breaking revelations, and newly released government papers on both sides of the Atlantic have added a very insightful new dimension to the understanding of this the worlds' greatest ever conflict ...
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World War II In HD Colour is a 13 episode television documentary series recounting the major events of World War II narrated by Robert Powell. The series combines both original and colourised footage. With the very latest satellite delivered terrain mapping and state of the art graphics this story can now be told with access to information which was not previously available to other older series. Conventional wisdom has recently changed as more and more secrets have been revealed particularly in the last five to ten years as documentsfiles and photographs have been released. Code breaking revelations, and newly released government papers on both sides of the Atlantic have added a very insightful new dimension to the understanding of this the worlds' greatest ever conflict. Episode 11 The Island War - America is now starting to use a new tactic of island hopping resulting in the slow crumbling of the ...
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World War II In HD Colour is a 13 episode television documentary series recounting the major events of World War II narrated by Robert Powell. The series combines both original and colourised footage. With the very latest satellite delivered terrain mapping and state of the art graphics this story can now be told with access to information which was not previously available to other older series. Conventional wisdom has recently changed as more and more secrets have been revealed particularly in the last five to ten years as documentsfiles and photographs have been released. Code breaking revelations, and newly released government papers on both sides of the Atlantic have added a very insightful new dimension to the understanding of this the worlds' greatest ever conflict. Episode 13 Victory in the Pacific - As the Americans face the decision of what to do with mainland Japan, President Truman calls to bomb ...
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